Satellite Fleet Operations Engineer (Starshield)

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

SATELLITE FLEET OPERATIONS ENGINEER (STARSHIELD)

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.

As a Satellite Fleet Operations Engineer, you will have a unique opportunity to characterize, develop, and operate new satellite platforms in space. You will work with subsystem responsible engineers, software engineers, and electrical design engineers to understand and evaluate how the satellite should be operated and then execute on that vision. You will also work with our satellite hosted payload partners to design and implement solutions necessary for operating a variety of sensors at scale in a constellation. Working as a cross disciplinary expert, you will ensure that the software running the vehicle is safe and reliable. This will require you to make updates to code that not only alerts you to issues on-orbit, but also safely recovers the vehicle autonomously from anomalies, ensuring continued mission success. You will help develop and refine the tool chains needed to make the daily operations more accessible and through a process of continuous improvement, you will automate the operations of the satellite to the point of minimal operator intervention.

In this new and exciting role, you will face problems that have never been seen before and you will be responsible for solving them. The satellites you develop and operate will be for external customers, but also used to broaden SpaceX knowledge of satellite constellation communications with future applicability to Starship Lunar and Martian missions.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams to represent the satellite system in defining scope, system requirements, and vehicle level software
• Own payload/bus interface design, operational knowledge, fault detection, and alerts
• Own operations throughout launch and on-orbit mission duration
• Support on-orbit payload operations throughout the life of the satellites
• Design and develop flight representative simulations using software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop testbeds to validate operations for flight
• Create tool chains to autonomously execute operations, monitor and process data for analysis
• Analyze launch trajectories to determine contact and initialization schedule including bus initialization, orbit raise, and payload checkouts

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline, computer science, or physics
• 6+ months of experience in system level engineering development and/or hands on system level testing (including internships, design/build/compete collegiate project teams)
• 6+ months of experience authoring and reviewing software (including internships, design/build/compete collegiate project teams, academic/personal projects)

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Systems knowledge of space vehicles and redundancy architectures
• Familiarity with Linux based operating systems
• Experience with automating complex systems
• Experience with orbital mechanics, satellite attitude, determination and control
• Experience with real time operations on space qualified vehicles or other highly complex systems
• Experience with space-based sensor platforms
• Creative, passionate problem solver that can thrive leading multidisciplinary teams through fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding design and integration campaigns
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Active Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance, or ability to obtain one desired

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Able to work extended hours and weekends as needed to support critical operations
• An active clearance may provide the opportunity for you to work on sensitive SpaceX missions; if so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol testing

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:    
    
Pay range:    
GNC Engineer/Level I: $120,000.00 - $145,000.00/per year    
GNC Engineer/Level II: $140,000.00 - $170,000.00/per year    
    
Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowle